NATMAP HOST is a new product derived from the National Soil Map. It provides users with a useful, concise, easily interpreted and applicable description of the range of soil hydrological responses typical across England and Wales.

NATMAP host is useful for anyone wanting generalised and simple-to-understand information on soil hydrological properties at a 1:250,000 scale.

How was this map derived?

A hydrologically-based classification of the soils of the United Kingdom that describes both the soils and their distribution, and the hydrological response of catchments. The classification is based on conceptual models
of the processes that occur in the soil and, where appropriate, the substrate. The resulting scheme has 29 classes, based on eleven response models; Soils are assigned to classes on the basis of their physical properties, and with reference to the hydrogeology of the substrate.

For this map the host classes of each of the component soil series in a soil association was derived and the percentage of each host class was calculated within each polygon. The dominant host classification was also identified.